Superb Solo Effort From Bebe Sees United Past Morecambe

A strong Manchester United side beat Morecambe 1-0 in a game which was anything but entertaining as they begun their defence of the Lancashire Senior Cup.

United created the first chance of the game on 8 minutes when Davide Petrucci released Kiko Macheda who took the ball past the goalkeeper, but his finish was cleared off the line by Wilson.

Morecambe struck back and had several good opportunities to take the lead. Parkinson had a good shot saved by Lindegaard and Izak Reid squandered a good chance when he was alone with the Danish keeper.

Gradually United took control of the game and enjoyed a strong spell midway through the first half. Petrucci had a low shot saved with some difficulty, and the resulting corner ended with keeper Arestidou having to pull off a good save to prevent Michael Keane from scoring with an acrobatic overhead-kick.

After going close minutes before when his deflected shot went inches wide of the post, Bebe eventually gave United the lead on 28 minutes. Receiving the ball on the right, Bebe turned his defender a couple of times before unleashing a fierce drive that flew into the bottom corner, a great goal from Bebe from a very difficult angle.

Bebe had another big chance just 6 minutes later when Ryan Tunnicliffe broke the offside-trap but couldn’t get a shot in – so he pulled the ball back for Bebe whose shot struck a defender and went straight into the arms of Arestidou.
Macheda should have added a second on 41 minutes; he did all the hard work by elegantly gliding past his defender but slotted the ball past the post.

Second half

If the first half was poor, the second was worse. United seemed content on holding onto their lead and Morecambe seemed unable to create anything.

The introduction of Januzaj for Thorpe on 67 minutes improved United – and he immdiately created 2 big chances.

First he found space on the right squaring the ball for Bebe, who saw his shot hit a defender and go wide then three minutes later he sent a superb ball to Macheda who tried to chip the goalkeeper from 20 yards – but the ball flew inches wide of the post.

Morecambe came very close to beating Lindegaard on 83 minutes. Left back Wilson delivered a wonderful cross into the box that Lindegaard punched straight at a Morecambe player, but luckily the ball bounced just wide of the post.